Which vitamin drops do you use for BF babies?

[SquidgersMummy]

Have read vitamin drops are good if EBF - which ones do you use and is it once or twice a day and easy to get it in?

X

My baby loves Boots vitamin drops. They are in 3 for 2s sometimes.

Wot Jack and Lyndie said. This has been standard guidance in other northern European countries for many years but is only now slowly filtering down to front-line health professionals here despite NICE guidelines issued last winter.

Can I just emphasise again though the importance of taking vitamin D3 though. Many multivitamins don't have that particular type.

Right - am convinced for now at least on D3 front. Just looked at the Haelthy Start drops on line and it just says Vit D...should it specify D3?

Have a look at well baby. They're D3 IIRC.
(it should state on the label yes).

jack this is new to me as no HCP has mentioned it at any of my checks although I do remember the publicity last year. My LO is 10 wks, neither take anything so I wait until she is 6 mo or I take them now?

TIA

All GPs, HVs, community pharmacists and MWs should be telling pregnant women and mothers of young children about this:

www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_132508.pdf

I've never had vitamin drops verbally advised to me by my HVs but in all the weaning advice leaflets they give you, you are told to start vitamin drops from 6 months and they tell you how to get hold of the Healthy Start vitamins which were linked to above. I followed that link to find my local distribution centre which inferred they were free...? Or are they only free for people on certain benefits (which I'm not)? Confusingly, the leaflets I was given by NHS Wales infer that only those babies who are taking less than x amount of formula per day require the drops, whereas the NHS England ones we got when we moved recently said formula-fed babies as above plus all BF babies. You're advised to continue them until the age of five. I eat very healthily a few too many biscuits maybe and take breastfeeding support vitamins, but I think I'll still use the drops when we start weaning next month.

Can't find Well Baby drops in internet but found these - are they all as expensive?
www.naturesaid.co.uk/supplements/vitamins_b_c_d_e/vitmain_d3_drops/index.asp

Tbh at this time of year it wouldn't hurt anybody to take a vit d supplement. Personally I take one anyway, and I'm not pg or bf.

I would def start drops with weaning if bf
too.

www.vitabiotics.com/Wellkid/babydrops_formula.aspx

The advice to give vitamins is in the NHS book isn't it?

Yep. 0-5 Book and leaflets given out by HVs.

I never got a book!
DD is 14mo and am a bit annoyed as asked GP and HV and neither said this was important if she got a balanced diet and allowed out without sun cream.

Clearly this has changed in the last 6 months or so, but GP still hasn't said anything, despite me seeing him twice since asking and in last 6 months...

What book?

The NHS 0-5 book.

I don't know that book, but I'm pretty certain that I read the research once recently and learned that vit d was only deficiency issue in certain ethnic groups, particularly groups who have dark skin and additionally are part of a culture where they are expected to cover up most of themselves.

I figured since my kids are out in shorts nearly all year and NEVER wear suncream in the UK (and rarely abroad), AND have a diet rich in fish, there was absolutely no need to give vitamins which no research has actually proven do a damn thing anyway.

It's impossible in the UK to generate enough vit d even if you're outside all year long.

There is a v good argument that other vitamins aren't needed with good diet, and many medics don't think they work anyway.

That's not true for vit d though.

Do you not believe vitamins work then Starlight ? I'm quite interested and confused that you seem very defensive on this thread. Breastfeeding is great, but it's not a panacea for every ill. Vitamin D deficiency has been proven to cause MS. If the NHS are recommending drops then why would you not give them?

Plus the virgin gut thing is a load of twallocks.

'Vitamin D deficiency has been proven to cause MS'

Yes. But no-one has managed to convince me that my children are at any risk of vitamin D deficiency.

I don't believe that vitamins work no. I believe they 'could' work, if stored, transported and combined properly, and particular care has been taken during manufactor to ensure their bioavailability.

But I have seen no evidence that bog standard affordable multivitamins make any difference whatsoever.

I have also seen enough evidence to convince me of the importance of the virgin gut.

FWIW any defensiveness is entirely in your imagination.

It's not like vit d is toxic Starlight. Why are you so anti vitamins?

Agree about the virgin gut btw, and no bf infant should need anything other than bm until 6mo (medication aside, obviously)

Price mainly Jack.

And, I shall say again - vid d is in a different league to other vitamins. You cannot get enough of it from food and your body generates it if you get enough sunlight.

Other multi vits have not been proved to make any difference to health. People take them as a safety net, but all the medics I know don't bother as they know they get enough from a good diet.

This does not happen with vit d. It can affect so many things within the body from mental health to ms to cardiovascular health and there are studies just starting to work out where else vit d supplementation could improve public health.

Believe what you believe, but check your facts first.

Sorry, didn't mean that to sound so arsey :)